K.C.’s rally spoils Semien’s night
Marcus Semien’s magnificent season, obvious to those who follow the team regularly, is going to have to start opening some eyes nationally at some point.
In Oakland’s 65 loss to Kansas City at the Coliseum on Monday night, the shortstop became the team’s season home run leader batting leadoff — passing Rickey Henderson’s mark of 28 set in 1990.
The A’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot remained at 10 when closer Liam Hendriks allowed two runs in the ninth, one on a homer by No. 9 hitter Brett Phillips and the other helped by an error by Ramón Laureano, who moved from right to center to start the inning.
Oakland’s majorleagueleading 29th blown save of the season ended the team’s sixgame winning streak; after Phillips’ second homer of the season, Whit Merrifield reached when Laureano dropped his flyball to center and Adalberto Mondesi sent in Merrifield with a double to left.
The A’s had taken the lead in the eighth on Khris Davis’ RBI single, which followed a double by Matt Olson and an intentional walk to Robbie Grossman. Neither the Rays nor Indians played Monday, so Oakland blew a chance to gain a little bit of a cushion. Tampa Bay trails Oakland by one game for the top wildcard spot. Cleveland is 21 ⁄2 games back of the A’s.
With his excellent allaround year, which includes strong defensive metrics, Semien is putting himself into the MVP conversation with the Angels’ Mike Trout and the Astros’ Alex Bregman; his 6.6 WAR is third in the league behind Trout’s 8.6 and Bregman’s 7.4. Semien’s 31 homers are tied for second most all time among A’s shortstops, three shy of Miguel Tejada’s 34 in 2002; Tejada was named the AL MVP that season.
Semien is tied with Boston’s Xander Bogaerts for most homers among AL shortstops, and, here’s the staggering mark: According to Mike Selleck of the A’s PR department, Semien has done something only Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Lou Gerhig had achieved, recording at least 116 runs, 173 hits, 38 doubles, seven triples, 30 home runs, 85 RBIs, 78 walks and 10 stolen bases in a season. Ruth did so in 1921 and 1923 and Gehrig in 1927 and 1930.
“Amazing,” third baseman Matt Chapman said. “It just goes to show hard work pays off. He continually got better and was able to make adjustments every year . ... It’s unbelievable, the consistency. He plays every inning of every game and doesn’t take a day off and he helps guys like me with his experience.”
Semien had three hits and factored in all of Oakland’s early scoring Monday. He singled to open the first, Laureano walked and Olson sent both racing home with an oppositefield double. And the next inning, Semien followed Sean Murphy’s double with a blast to center.
Tanner Roark started for the A’s and, well, he threw a lot of pitches in a relatively short span while mostly sidestepping trouble. Merrifield led off the game with a single and Mondesi tripled him home — but Laureano’s reputation held Mondesi at third despite two chances to score. Jorge Soler and Hunter Dozier both hit flyballs to right on which the speedy Mondesi normally would have tried to score; Laureano zipped throws home so quickly that Mondesi didn’t budge. Roark then struck out Alex Gordon.
In the fourth, Soler clobbered a homer 447 feet into the seats in leftcenter, his 45th, tying him with Trout for the league lead, then the Royals loaded the bases with no outs, Dozier doubling and Roark hit Gordon and walked Bubba Starling. Roark then struck out Ryan O’Hearn, Meibrys Viloria and Phillips, but he threw 39 pitches in the innings, giving him 95 for the game.
That meant that he didn’t have quite as much leeway to get in trouble in the fifth, which he did. Merrifield singled and with one out, Soler doubled. Roark got Dozier to pop up, but he was at 110 pitches and manager Bob Melvin went to lefty Jake Diekman to face Gordon, a lefthanded hitter. Diekman, whom the Royals traded to the A’s on July 27 for two minorleaguers, got a groundball from Gordon, but it sneaked through the hole between first and second, sending in two to tie the game.
Roark did not allow more than two runs in any of his first four outings with Oakland, but since then, he has given up 13 runs in 23 innings. He has allowed 23 homers this season — and 18 of them have come with the bases empty.